TJ Walker examines Trump's flip-flop on mail voting, calling it a scam one week then urging Republicans to use it the next, while Trump himself votes by mail. Walker also critiques Meta's screen-time limits as ineffective and warns that short-form video harms teens' ability to think long-term.
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Ultimize. Meta just agreed to limit teenagers to 2 hours a day on Instagram and Facebook. That's like a drug dealer promising your kid only 2 hits a day, then handing him 3 other dealers' numbers. As part of an $18 billion settlement, Meta wants TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat to adopt the same limit. Any limit beats none, I guess. And parents are desperate. I get it. But I'm a productivity coach. 2 hours of Instagram, 2 hours of TikTok, 2 hours of YouTube, 2 hours of Snapchat— that's 8 hours. That's not a limit, that's a union job. Your 14-year-old will start asking for overtime. Meta even shuts the feed off from midnight to 6 AM. They're not protecting children, they're resting the livestock. A 2-hour limit on one app is a seat belt for one passenger on a bus Driving off a cliff. Worst part, you're watching this on a short. I'm part of the problem, and I've set a goal to monetize it. A Wall Street Journal report on a study of more than 1,500 high schoolers in China found short videos damage future time perspective, the ability to connect what you do today to what happens later. Study now, good grades later. Floss now, teeth later. Vote Republican now, measles later. I spent my career selling future time perspective. I call it a vision board. Today's teenagers can't see past 11 seconds. Their vision board is a ring light and a vape. Mark Zuckerberg asking rivals to protect children is a fox filing a complaint about the henhouse security. He looked at a generation of kids and saw an untapped mineral deposit. The expert's advice: have your kid practice mindfulness. Nothing calms a 15-year-old like his dad saying, let's all take a breath, while checking his own phone. Ban social media for anyone under 16. Australia did it. Nothing bad happened there. We don't let a 15-year-old buy a lottery ticket, but we hand him a slot machine that knows his weight. his crush, and his deepest fear and call it a birthday present. Parents, I say this with love. Handing a 10-year-old a smartphone isn't like leaving lines of cocaine on the coffee table. Cocaine runs out. Cocaine doesn't text your kid at 2 AM, you up? And your coke dealer doesn't have a board of directors. Would you like to be the sort of successful person who is dominating news, at least in your industry? Well, if so, it's time to up your skills. At ultimize.com, I've created online courses to help you do that. Now, here's the thing. No obligation. You can get a free course on communication skills, a free course on how to build better habits. All you have to do is go to ultimize.com. That's ultimize.com. No obligation. Go there now. Speaking of people who can't connect yesterday to today, Donald Trump just told Republicans to vote by mail. Okay. On Saturday, he posted, whether you vote early, absentee, by mail, or in person, you must swamp the radical left Democrats. Less than 3 weeks earlier, mail voting was a, quote, nation-destroying scam. In July, it was, quote, inherently corrupt. That's a guy who spent 5 years saying the restaurant poisons people. Then texting at midnight, order the shrimp, it's urgent. Wanting secure ballots and fast results is reasonable, but I coach executives on message discipline, and rule one is don't call your product a scam, then beg customers to buy it. Trump doesn't oppose mail voting; he opposes your mail voting. When a Democrat licks the envelope, it's fraud. When a Republican licks it, it's. Patriotism. When Trump licks it, it's a collectible. 49-49. Mail voting isn't the scam. The scam is loving democracy only when the ballots love you back. Best part? Trump votes by mail himself in Florida twice this year. He's not fighting the scam. He's a loyal customer. If Trump ever says 2 consistent things in a row, it should be a news alert. This just in: the president's Tuesday position does not completely contradict Monday's position. Historians are stunned. Melania has requested a second opinion. His mail voting position has flipped more often than his businesses filed for bankruptcy. That's a high bar. Six, and his election advisor last year Trump told Sean Hannity that Vladimir Putin, quote, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting. Election advice from Putin is marriage advice from Henry VIII. Putin wins with 87% and his top opponent died in an Arctic prison. That's not an election. That's a hostage video with balloons. Trump doesn't take Putin's advice. He takes Putin's dictation. If you're not a party hack, this should trouble you. You can't love democracy and call every kind of voting fraud except whichever kind helps you this week. Speaking of things Republicans like sealed in an envelope, let's give conservatives credit. They've been furious for years about child sex abuse and powerful people covering it up. They're right. That's a human value. They even had a slogan, save the children. Turns out the full slogan was, save the children unless it annoys Dad or Donald. Republican Congressman Jeff Crank of Colorado faces a TV ad starring the family of Jeffrey Epstein's most famous accuser. Virginia Giuffre's brother and sister-in-law are his constituents. They say he refused to meet them, repeatedly voted to block the Epstein files, and covered up Epstein's crimes to protect Donald Trump. Crank says he's always supported transparency. When the House finally voted after Trump reversed himself, it passed 427 to 1. But courage after the boss signs the permission slip isn't courage. It's a field trip. Translation, I strongly oppose child sex trafficking, just not enough to get a mean post from Trump on Truth Social. I coach people on values. Too many Republicans rank theirs, protect children, defend freedom, don't upset Trump. And number 3 keeps winning. The kicker? Giuffre was a teenager working at Trump's Mar-a-Lago when Epstein's circle recruited her. Trump himself said Epstein stole her from his club. Stole, like she was a golf cart. And we don't know that Donald Trump abused anyone, okay, but we know this: in 2002, Trump told New York Magazine Epstein was a terrific guy who likes beautiful women as much as he does, and many of them on the younger side. Insert ick here. That's not a character reference. That's the cold open of a Dateline episode. The organizer of a 1992 calendar girl party at Mar-a-Lago said the only guests were Trump, Epstein, and 28 women. 28 women, 2 men. That's not a party, that's a casting call for a grand jury. To force a vote on the files, only 4 House Republicans signed the petition. 4. You could fit the Republican Conscious Caucus in a Kia. With room for the spare tire, which has shown more spine. If protecting kids is your number one issue, I don't care how much you hate taxes, pronouns, or me. Check who stalled, who wouldn't sign, who wouldn't take the meeting, then vote like a parent. Want to bet on whether Jeff Prank keeps his seat? You can in America. Everything is now gambling. The U.S. Senate banned its own senators and staff from betting on prediction markets like Cauchy and Polymarket. Not you, just themselves. These people take steak dinners from any lobbyist, and even they said, oh, too sketchy for us. Then they left it legal for your 18-year-old. Sportsbooks make you wait until 21. Prediction markets take you at 18. A $20 bet makes the game more fun. Okay, but I teach goal setting, and I've never seen a vision board with a parlay on it. The smartest people don't bet on Calci. They invest in Cauchy. They don't play the casino. They become the casino. They own a piece of it. A ProPublica reporter deliberately bet like a problem gambler, and DraftKings didn't cut him off. It made him a VIP. A car company makes money getting you somewhere. A gambling company makes money when you end up somewhere worse— in the poorhouse. And who has advised both Cauchy and Paulie Market? Donald Trump Jr. Finally, a Trump who understands the house always wins. His father bankrupted casinos, plural. 61% of Americans say prediction markets are closer to gambling. 8% say investing. Yeah, right. That 8% has a podcast and a leased Lamborghini and a mother who stopped asking. The tragedy is the talent. Brilliant kids went to MIT and Stanford to build the world's most efficient machine for turning a paycheck into a push notification. Their grandparents cured polio. They invented a button that bets your rent on a Lakers free throw. It's the only business plan where the customer success team is rooting against the customer. These apps aren't built for foolish people. They're built for hopeful people. A 19-year-old told he'll never afford a house thinks his only shot is a miracle, and somebody sold him one with a sign-up bonus. I'm in the hope business too, but with my course, the worst case is you learn to make eye contact. So the American childhood in 2026: Meta keeps your kids scrolling until 17. At 18, Kaushee takes the handoff. It's a relay race, and the baton is your savings account. My solution: a vision board. A teenager reading a book, no phone in sight. I'm turning it into a 12-hour course available exclusively in 60-second clips. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for watching. Ultimize.
